You are here

Chinese public security officials detained nine Tibetans in Ganzi (Kardze) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP), Sichuan province, between March and August, 2006, according to a series of reports between June and September by Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Phayul.com. Officials detained the Tibetans following incidents of distributing or displaying pro-independence leaflets and posters, and in at least one case, possessing printed matter that included photographs of the Dalai Lama.

Chinese public security officials detained nine Tibetans in Ganzi (Kardze) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP), Sichuan province, between March and August, 2006, according to a series of reports between June and September by Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Phayul.com. Officials detained the Tibetans following incidents of distributing or displaying pro-independence leaflets and posters, and in at least one case, possessing printed matter that included photographs of the Dalai Lama. Three detainees are Buddhist nuns, one is a former nun, and one is a 16-year-old female student. Three of the four males are Buddhist monks. Eight of the nine detained Tibetans live in Ganzi county, the residence of more Tibetan political prisoners than anywhere outside the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), according to information in the CECC Political Prisoner Database (PPD).

Security officials detained six of the Tibetans for alleged roles in printing and distributing pro-independence leaflets in late May, during the Tibetan Buddhist lunar holy month, according to a June 15 Phayul report and a June 16 RFA report. Ganzi county officials detained Tibetan layman Kayo Doga (or Kayi Doga) and nun Sonam Lhamo on June 1 and 2, respectively, on suspicion of having organized the printing and distribution of the leaflets. Nuns Sonam Choezom (or Sonam Choetso) and Jampa Yangzom (or Jampa Yangtso), and Yiga, Kayo Doga's daughter and a former nun, allegedly distributed the leaflets from a van to "lunchtime crowds in [Ganzi] prefecture," according to RFA sources, and then fled to Lhasa in the TAR. Public security officials in Lhasa and Ganzi cooperated on the case, detained the three women in Lhasa in early June, and returned them to an unspecified detention site in Ganzi TAP, according to Phayul's description of an RFA report. In addition, Yiwang, a middle-school student in Ganzi county, was detained in June and accused of writing the leaflets, according to an August 18 RFA report.

A Ganzi court issued a notice that the six detainees, including the minor Yiwang, would face trial, according to a Tibetan source cited in the August RFA report, indicating that formal arrest has taken place. No information about the charges against them, the trials, or verdicts is available. According to PPD information, Kayo Doga was sentenced in December 2002 to three years' reeducation through labor for his role in organizing a long-life prayer ceremony for the Dalai Lama, and was released early on medical parole.

In two separate incidents involving the seventh and eighth Ganzi detentions, county officials detained Gepheling Monastery monks Namkha Gyaltsen in March and Lobsang Palden on August 15, according to RFA reports on July 14 and September 19. A source told RFA that Namkha Gyaltsen painted pro-independence slogans on bridges and the walls of government buildings in Ganzi county, and another source said that he put up pro-independence posters and displayed a Tibetan flag. He fled Ganzi and attempted to reach the China-Nepal border, but Chinese security officials detained him in the TAR and returned him to Ganzi. He allegedly confessed and, according to an RFA source who cited local officials, Namkha Gyaltsen faces a potential seven- to eight-year sentence. He is imprisoned in Aba (Ngaba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province. Security officials detained Lobsang Palden after they searched his room at Gepheling Monastery and found "several incriminating documents," including photos of the Dalai Lama, according to an RFA source. Another source told RFA that he was allegedly involved in pro-independence activity. Officials at a detention center, which the report does not identify, allegedly beat Lobsang Palden for refusing to implicate other persons. He was formally arrested on September 6 on charges of inciting splittism, according to the RFA report.

In the ninth reported Ganzi detention, public security officials from Kangding (Dartsedo), the capital of Ganzi TAP, traveled to Seda (Serthar) county in Ganzi TAP where they detained Abbot Jinpa of Taglung Monastery on August 23, 2006, according to a September 7 RFA report. Officials reportedly searched Jinpa's living quarters but did not find any "incriminating materials," according to the report. A source told RFA that the detention may be linked to the appearance of pro-independence posters at the monastery approximately one year earlier. The report does not state whether or not the officials took Jinpa with them when they returned to Dartsedo. No information is available about official accusations or charges against him, or about his place of detention.

Based on PPD data current in early October, Tibetan residents of Ganzi TAP constitute 9 of the 10 known political detentions of Tibetans by Chinese authorities in 2006 so far. The CECC 2006 Annual Report says that none of the known political detentions of Tibetans occurred in Sichuan province in 2005, a shift from the previous three years. The 2006 detentions in Ganzi TAP represent a return to an established pattern of Tibetan political activism and imprisonment. Chinese courts treat peaceful expressions advocating Tibetan independence as endangering state security by "inciting splittism" and "undermining national unity," crimes under Article 103 of China's Criminal Law.

See Section V(d), on "Freedom of Religion, Religious Freedom for Tibetan Buddhists," and Section VIII, on "Tibet, Tibetan Culture and Human Rights," of the CECC 2006 Annual Report for more information.